Healthcare company Intuitive Surgical (ISRG 2.67%) has been somewhat pushed aside as investors in the sector focus their interest on companies working to fight the coronavirus pandemic. However, after the market closed on Tuesday, the robotic surgical systems maker reported second-quarter results that well-exceeded analysts' consensus estimates -- which might make its stock harder to keep ignoring.
For the quarter, revenue fell by 22% on a year-over-year basis to just over $852 million. Non-GAAP (adjusted) net income dropped more precipitously, declining by 66% to slightly more than $132 million, or $1.11 per share.
Image source: Intuitive Surgical.
Collectively, the analysts tracking Intuitive had been modeling for just under $665 million on the top line, and an adjusted net profit of $0.63 per share.
Intuitive Surgical's bread-and-butter products are its Da Vinci robotic surgery system and the many disposable instruments and accessories that those machines use during procedures. The use of those systems has fallen recently because so many medical procedures have been postponed due to hospitals conserving their resources to fight the coronavirus pandemic. In Q2, the number of Da Vinci procedures performed dropped by 19% year over year, while shipments of the system fell 35% to a total of 178.
The company also announced that in the fourth quarter, it will begin selling certain Da Vinci X and Xi disposable instruments with longer lives -- 12 to 18 uses rather than the current standard of 10. Intuitive Surgical added that in Q4, it plans to reduce the price of select instruments used in low-acuity surgeries.
Due to the ongoing uncertainty about how the coronavirus pandemic will impact the world and Intuitive Surgical's business, the healthcare company's management did not proffer any guidance.
"We cannot yet see the end of the COVID-19 pandemic," said CFO Gary Guthart said during the conference call discussing the quarter's results. "When the lessons from this event are absorbed, I believe high-quality, minimally invasive care will be more important to the future, not less so."
